


the things that make you different (are the very things that make you strong)

by heroofhermes



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Annabeth Chase is a Good Friend (Percy Jackson), Asexual Leo Valdez, Backstory, Bisexual Annabeth Chase (Percy Jackson), Friendship, Gen, Hugging, Leo Valdez Needs a Hug, Male-Female Friendship, Minor Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Nonbinary Character, Other, Toric Leo Valdez, annabeth chase pls marry me, anyways sorry if this is trash tee hee, i had to sneak in some fraleo there im sorry y'all non fraleo shippers, ill also write a fraleo fanfic soon of frank and leo cuddling bc frank loves to cuddle ok yes bye, leo has a crush on frank, leo valdez pls let me hug you, minor Leo Valdez/Frank Zhang, nonbinary leo valdez, yes the lightning thief musical lyrics title
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:20:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27776758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heroofhermes/pseuds/heroofhermes
Summary: Leo had always known they were slightly different than the other boys in their neighborhood. They had always had this sort of feeling inside that something was wrong, but they never really gave those thoughts much attention, because if you were young and had something, anything that was different about you, somebody would give you hell for it. In Leo's first foster home, a boy was ridiculed for mentioning liking another boy in his class. And apparently, that was something that others thought was wrong, that wasn't normal, so Leo put on a brave face and tried to pretend to be as normal as possible.Leo Valdez growing up and finding themself. +Annabeth being a queen.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase & Leo Valdez, Leo Valdez & Original Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 37





	the things that make you different (are the very things that make you strong)

**Author's Note:**

> HI !!
> 
> bros, theydies and gentlethems, kings and queens and monarchs, amazing people, this is like the longest fanfiction i've ever wrote im so proud of myself y'all and im actually really happy with it for once, probably a lot of mistakes but i hope you like it :D

Leo had always known they were slightly different than the other boys in their neighborhood. They had always had this sort of feeling inside that something was wrong, but they never really gave those thoughts much attention, because if you were young and had something, anything that was different about you, somebody would give you hell for it. In Leo's first foster home, a boy was ridiculed for mentioning liking another boy in his class. And apparently, that was something that others thought was wrong, that wasn't normal, so Leo put on a brave face and tried to pretend to be as normal as possible.

Leo made a good friend in their first foster home. A girl named Amelia, with long brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. She was very sweet, and they liked to hold hands with her. The other boys joked about them being in love, or something along those lines. But Leo was confused, because they didn't understand why they thought that they were in love with her. Amelia was pretty, sure, and very mannerly and kind, but Leo wasn't in love with her.

"Can I tell you a secret?" Amelia asked one day, while they were both sitting underneath a tree in a garden nearby the school they both attended.

Leo nodded, looking up at her while their hands twisted and turned, creating a second daisy crown for Amelia to wear. 

"Don't tell anyone, but.. I dont like boys. They have cooties. I'm going to marry my best friend, Olivia. She and her mom bake the best cookies and she's very funny." Amelia whispered into their ear.

Leo frowned. "I thought I was your best friend?"

"Of course you are! You're one of the nicest boys I've ever met, Leo. I can have multiple best friends. Olivia's my special best friend, but you're my favourite best friend, promise." She grinned at them.

Leo's heart felt happy that they had such a good friend. Even if they had killed their own mother, and probably didn't deserve a friend, Leo liked Amelia's everything. But their heart also twisted for some strange reason when Amelia said "boys'' in reference to them. Because they weren't a boy. They didn't want to be a boy. There must be something wrong with them, because every time somebody called them a he their stomach twisted and they felt like they just wanted to leave the room and cry. So something had to be wrong with them.

After a few months at the foster home, Leo ran away.

~~~

When Leo was 10 years old, they tried on their first skirt. It was at their second foster home, which was with a very religious family. But they were very kind, and had a young daughter named Kelly who was just a year younger than Leo, and she was very fun to play with. They also had an older son, Brendan, who was about 17, and seemed the picture perfect son until Leo started noticing that he often escaped during the night and had a packet of cigarettes under his mattress. He was kind though, and he treated Leo like a little sibling.

It was one day when Leo was left almost home alone when they tried on the skirt. Their mother was outside watering the plants, their father was at work, Brendan and Kelly were both out with their friends, and Leo was the only one inside the house.

They pushed open the door to their adopted parents room, because their bed was the comfiest and had the softest blanket. They didn't expect that a skirt lying on the end of the bed would distract them. They picked it up in a kind of awe, feeling the soft satin in their hands, imagining how it would feel on them. So they shook off their trousers and pulled the skirt up, grabbing a black belt from their mothers drawer and pulling it around because the skirt wasn't tight enough, although they probably tied it around wrong.

The satin felt soft against their skin, and the skirt felt flowy and made them feel so free, like they could fly up into the clouds and meet their mother and visit her every day, hoping to whatever gods or god there were that maybe there was even the slightest chance she could forgive them. But they brushed that thought aside, because they felt so happy in that moment and they didn't want another night of sobbing themself to sleep, hugging the photograph of them and their mom close to their chest and feeling like there was no hope left. They deserved a little happiness, right? 

They looked at themself in the mirror, a huge smile on their face. The skirt was a bit too big and made them look a bit stupid, but they couldn't stop smiling and they thought the flowey pink skirt looked beautiful. They spun around, laughing properly and happily like they hadn't since the two years it had been since their mother had passed away. And then their mother walked through the door.

She stared at them for a second, a look of horror on her face for a moment, then a sympathetic one. "Leonidas, no, no," She said, moving over to them and crouching down, unbuckling the belt on their skirt. "Skirts and dresses are for girls, not for boys, Leo. Mommy and Kelly can wear skirts but not Daddy and Brendan or you, or any man, okay, Leo?" She took off their skirt and handed them their trousers.

"That's unfair. Why can't boys wear skirts?" Leo frowned, unhappily putting their trousers back on.

Their mother frowned at them. "Skirts and dresses were just designed for girls, Leo. Jesus wouldn't want a man to interfere with something designed for women."

"But Jesus wore dresses!" Leo whined, crossing their arms. It was so unfair. Why could girls wear pants and it was completely normal, but boys couldn't wear dresses? It was so unfair, Leo didn't want to be a boy, Leo wasn't a boy, what was wrong with them?

"Jesus wore robes, not a dress. Besides, things have changed since then, the world has developed. Boys can't wear dresses, it's the world God designed. I think you'd look wonderful in a dress sweetie, but it's not what God would have wanted." Their mother seemed uncertain in her words, like she didn't truly believe what she was saying, like she was repeating somebody else's words.

Another few months later, Leo ran away again.

~~~

When Leo was 12, they started figuring things out. They weren't attracted to girls, at all. It wasn't a realization they had come to all of a sudden. It was always there, but they wanted to be normal, so they just tried to forget about it, think about how disappointed their mother could be if she saw them now. They wiped the tears away, staring at a blank spot on the wall of their fourth foster home, fiddling with some pipe cleaner in their hand.

Leo was so confused. They knew they liked men, it was an undeniable fact and as much as they wanted to deny it, they weren't straight. They were different, and people didn't like that. But they didn't want to do anything more than kissing with boys. They wanted to kiss one, for sure, but anything further felt wrong. They just had to be a late bloomer. But something still felt wrong, because they weren't a boy. They had learned about the LGBT community in school that day, and they were scared to confront how they felt.

Transgender. They tried thinking about it, but no, they couldn't be, because they didn't dislike their body. They felt very comfortable in their body, and they didnt feel like they would be happy with people calling them a girl, either. 

They looked at the giraffe they had made out of pipe cleaner in their hand, staring at it for a moment before taking it apart and beginning to reconstruct it. They could think about this another day. What would their mom think if she saw them now? God, she’d probably be so disappointed in them.

“I’m sorry, Mama…” They mumbled, clutching the photo of her tight in their hand, thinking about how their mother was probably looking at them with disappointment. First they killed her, and then they ended up like this? They let out a quiet sob, something they had gotten very used to in the last few years. They just wanted to make their mother proud. So they pushed themself further back in the closet, because their mother would at least want her son to be normal. Everyone seemed to want them to be normal.

~~~

Leo was 13 when they went to Mother Teresa's foster home. The moment they walked in after four months on the road, at their sixth foster home, they felt sick. The downstairs had looked beautiful, sure, but something about it was wrong. It was so clean and tidy, and the house was so quiet, despite Mother Teresa saying there were another 9 foster kids with them.

They almost thought Mother Teresa was joking when she opened up a door in the upstairs room to a large room with gray walls and brown floors, four other people in the room, it looked too perfect. One girl was lying on her bed, reading Jane Eyre. Another girl was doing her homework on the top bunk. A boy was asleep on his bunk bed despite it being 6pm, and another girl was folding laundry. Something just felt so off. They were all wearing the same clothes, and their eyes hadn't even shifted over to look at Leo.

"Here you go, Leonidas. Your bed is in the corner. You can unpack now." She smiled at them, a smile that didn't reach her eyes and made Leo feel very uncomfortable. She stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her. 

The girl reading Jane Eyre closed the book (Which Leo noticed she had been holding the book upside down) and tucked it underneath her bed. "Go on, kid. Unpack your bags. Mother Teresa will check up on us in exactly another hour for dinner."

Leo gulped, walking over to the bed in the corner of the room, a mattress with a single blanket on top, a pillow that didn't look like the softest in the world at the top of it. Leo put their bag down, opening it up and pulling out their stuff.

"So, I hear this is the party room, eh?" They grinned. They would totally re-use that if they ever got an opportunity again, although they knew that they probably never would. 

Nobody laughed, except the girl doing her homework, who snorted and then covered her mouth.

The Jane Eyre girl just frowned. "Mother Teresa is a bitch. You're funny. Hope she doesn't ruin your personality, kid."

Leo started fiddling nervously with the zipper on their bag. "Um.. what's that supposed to mean?"

Jane Eyre Girl shrugged, pulling a sketch pad from underneath her pillow. "You'll find out sooner enough."

~~~

If Leo had known what Mother Teresa’s foster home would be like, they would never have run away from their previous foster home, despite the older brother they had with them who seemed to find joy in making fun of Leo and getting them in trouble all the time. But none of their foster homes were as bad as Mother Teresa’s. They sat on the mattress after the first dinner, their stomach twisting thinking back about it.

“Leo?” A voice whispered, and Leo turned to look at the boy in the room, who had crept over to the side of their bed, if you could even call it that. “Mother Teresa isn’t always that bad, she’s just a bit… strict with new foster kids. Don’t worry about it.”

Leo stared at him, not sure if he was joking or not, fiddling with the edges of the thin blanket that Leo realized had many holes throughout it. “Jackson, she slapped you and made you pick up the pieces of the plate you dropped with your bare hands. You’re still bleeding.” Leo pointed to Jackson’s hands, which had a large cut covered by a cut off piece of a small towel that was very old, hanging on by two thin pieces of tape. “She seems pretty bad to me.” 

“I dropped it, it was my fault. She just did what was right in making me pick it up, it was my plate and I was the one who dropped it, so I should be the one to clear it up. I deserved it.” He said, a distant look in his eyes, which looked red as if he had been crying.

The next morning at breakfast wasn’t as eventful as the previous, but there was an uncomfortable feeling in the room that Leo wondered if it was always there. Nobody spoke unless Teresa asked a question that was usually something weird and everyone at the table just stared at their food, not making eye contact with anyone.

After breakfast, they were allowed outside. Leo walked up to Jane Eyre girl, who they had discovered that her name was Alessandria, but she told them to call her Ali.

“Are breakfast and dinner always like that?” They asked.

Ali looked up at them. “They’re usually like breakfast was today, unless Mother Teresa is having a bad day. Make sure to be extra good on those days, she gets crazy mad for no reason.”

“Right… And there’s no plate dropping usually, right? Gotta feel bad for the plate makers, dude, all their hard work gone to waste.” Leo didn’t like when people dropped crockery. It reminded them of when Aunt Rosa had dropped her mug after Leo had been brought to her door and a nice young lady told Aunt Rosa that since their mother passed away, she would be next to take care of them. Aunt Rosa, through her tears, had dropped her mug, told the girl she would never take care of a diablo, that they were a murderer, and slammed the door. 

“First time in a long while. Sorry it had to happen on your first night here.” Ali smiled a bit at his words, but the smile quickly went away.

Leo was not going to like it here.

~~~

Leo was 13 when they first tried on makeup. It had been two months by now at Mother Teresa’s, and every minute was total hell. They were going to run away soon, they had to, but Ali and them had become good friends and she was one of the only good things, they didn’t want to leave her just yet. 

It was just an average enough day at Mother Teresa’s home, as average as it could be. Leo managed to escape most of the physical abuse most of the time, but the words Teresa said made their stomach twist and the subtle things that she did made him want to curl up in a ball and cry. Leo was just having a look around the bedroom while their other roommates hung around outside with the foster kids in the other room.

They stopped beside Ali’s bed, their eyes drifting over to a box with an eyeshadow palette sticking out of it. They opened the top of it fully, staring at all the different make up things that they had no idea what they actually were, but they still wanted to take them out and try them on. Leo had always thought make-up seemed pretty cool, but makeup was for girls, not for boys, so they just pulled out a few of the things, looking at them and trying to figure out what they were, the tiny words on the items jumbling up, sampling them on their hand, wanting nothing more than to try the makeup on, especially eyeliner. They had always thought eyeliner was just the coolest thing in the world.

“Whatcha doing?” Ali asked, coming over and sitting beside them.

Leo looked up, quickly rolling down their sleeve and putting the makeup back in. “Just looking at your makeup. It’s cool.” 

Ali smiled. “Thanks. I can put some on you, if you want?”

Leo blinked, their leg jumping up and down while their fingers tapped random songs on the bed. “Makeup is for girls, no thanks.” They laughed nervously.

“Makeup isn’t just for girls, that’s ridiculous, who told you that? Would you want to try it on if it wasn’t, I quote, for girls?” Ali was already rummaging through her makeup box, looking at their face and then at things in their makeup box, taking things out and putting them back in and then taking other ones out again.

“Yes,” Leo said immediately, although instantly regretted it. Makeup was for girls, this wasn’t a matter of if it wasn’t, this wasn’t what they should be doing, but Leo really wanted to try it so maybe just this once an exception could be made.

Ali smiled again. “Alright, you want eyeliner or something? A bit of blush, maybe some eyeshadow? I think this one would suit your skin tone and your overall vibe, but it wouldn’t look good with blush, but this one would? Your eyelashes are already beautiful, you don’t need any mascara or anything, and I’m not in the mood to do a full face right now, so yeah, and this lipstick? If you are comfortable, this would look so good on you, you know?” Ali was showing them all types of things, and Leo really had no idea what she was talking about, but it looked so cool.

“Uh, I don’t know, just do what you want.” Leo responded, preparing themself because Ali looked so excited.

The next twenty minutes or so was spent with Ali putting different things on their face, and it felt really weird but also really nice at the same time, and Leo was really excited to see what it looked like, but it felt amazing.

Ali finally pulled back, looking at them, and then pulling a mirror from behind her. “Here you go, take a look!”

Leo stared into the mirror for a moment, admiring their makeup, feeling almost close to tears. It felt like it had when they had tried on the skirt those years ago, a euphoric feeling, and they felt like they could do anything. They reached over, wrapping their arms around Ali in a hug. “Thank you,” They muttered, careful not to ruin their makeup.

Ali wrapped her arms around them back. “No problem, Leo.”

~~~

Leo couldn’t do it anymore. Four months at Mother Teresa’s had passed, and they couldn’t deal with it anymore, they needed to get out of there. They pulled open the strings of their backpack, starting to pack the things that they had kept outside. The photo of their mother, that they kept underneath the pillow when they slept. It would be smart to pack the blanket and pillow, so they stuffed the blanket in and the pillow didn’t fit, so they decided they could carry it by hand. A water bottle they kept beside their bed. They had been planning this for a while, looking for the perfect night to escape.

They looked over to Ali, who was staring at them, rubbing her eyes. “You’re leaving, aren’t you.”

This was going to be hard. Leo didn’t want to leave Ali, but they had to get out of there. It was becoming too much, and it seemed that all they could do was run away from everything, because all they were was a coward. “I’m sorry.”

Ali sat up, looking underneath her bed, and she pulled out something small that looked like a homemade bracelet. “I had a feeling you’d leave soon. Take this, to remember me.” 

Ali threw the bracelet over to them, and Leo caught it, putting it on their wrist. “You can run away with me, if you want. I know some good sewers we could stay in.”

Ali smiled sadly at them. “I couldn’t do that, Leo. Keep yourself healthy and safe out there, okay? If you need anything, just come during outside time, I’ll be there.” Ali wiped away something from her eyes.

“I’ll visit you if I can, Ali. Thank you.” They whispered. That night they left, staying on the streets for a few more months, until they were caught again. They never saw Ali again.

~~~

Leo was sitting beside Festus in the Argo II, fiddling with some wires to make sure the ship was doing okay. It was stupid, really. They were on a quest to defeat some old dirt face who had killed their mom, on a deadly quest that could kill all of them, and they might be the person who the world fell to. They had caused the Roman demigods to follow them and now half the people on the Argo probably hated them. Yet they were still worried about stupid things like people calling them a boy, or how they still didn’t want to do anything further than kissing, there had to be something wrong with them. 

Bad boy supreme. They thought maybe if they came up with something that ensured the fact that they were a boy, they would eventually feel comfortable, but saying it multiple times never seemed to work, so they were stuck with trying to make themself feel like a boy but it just never worked.

They had pushed their attraction to men so far back they could almost pretend they truly liked girls, but then after them and Frank had become best friends after being trapped underwater with the fish-centaurs, Leo had developed a crush on him, a stupid crush on him. He was taken, for god’s sake! By Hazel, and who wouldn’t love her. Stupid Frank with his stupid cute smile and his stupid cuddles.

There were other things to be worrying about, yet Leo was still worried about how they weren’t normal. It was fine, as long as they put those feelings aside they could pretend to be normal and maybe they would eventually become normal.

They were so focused on their own thoughts that they didn’t notice Annabeth coming in and sitting beside them, something she did quite a bit. Annabeth and Leo were pretty good friends - they often discussed architecture and building, or hung out quietly in the engine room.

“Are you okay?” Annabeth asked, which Leo was not expecting.

“What? Nah, don’t worry Wise Girl, I’m fine.” They put on their best smile, because all they knew to do was hide their feelings with some jokes. It had some perks, they got to annoy people and make them laugh, raise their spirits a bit, which made them feel a little bit better, but that didn’t change the fact that they still just wanted to think of themself for a bit. But that was selfish, right?

“No you’re not. You’ve been quiet recently. You don’t have to tell me what it is, but I think the least you could do is admit to yourself that you aren’t doing so great.” Annabeth said. Annabeth never failed to amaze them, she always knew exactly what to say.

“It’s stupid..” Leo responded, leaving the wires for a bit and instead playing with their fingers.

“Nothing that’s making you upset is stupid, Leo.” She said.

Leo stared at the floor, wondering what Leo would say if they told her that they weren’t normal. What would she think? But Leo was tired of keeping things to themself, tired of not knowing what was wrong with them. “I’m not a boy.”

“Okay,” Annabeth said simply, “What are you then?”

Leo was confused. Why was she so okay with this? “I’m not a girl, either. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. And I don’t like girls, just boys. But I don’t want to do anything much with boys, anything more than kissing. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, Leo. You’ve heard of the LGBTQ+ community, right?” 

Leo nodded.

“I’m bisexual. It took me a little long to figure it out, actually. I had a crush on this girl in my school when I was really young, but then when I grew up I had crushes on boys too, so I just thought it was a little phase I went through, because I’ve liked Percy and nobody else for quite a long time. But then I started learning about the community, and realized that if I hadn’t liked Percy, I probably would have liked some girls, too, and I would date a girl if I liked one. You might have heard of this thing called non-binary?” Annabeth began, and Leo was sort of in shock.

“Uh, no, I haven’t heard of it.” They responded.

“Okay, well, nonbinary is a spectrum for people who don’t fit into the binary genders. It can also be used as a term in itself for somebody whose gender doesn’t fit the binary. There’s a lot of labels inside of the term, like agender, having no gender, demigender, being half one gender and half another, genderfluid, the gender changes over time, and a lot more micro labels and other types of gender. Most nonbinary people use they/them pronouns, or multiple pronouns, like he/they or she/he/they, but some use neopronouns like xe/xym or ae/aer when he, she or they don’t feel right to them. Being nonbinary is totally valid and okay.” Annabeth finished.

Leo felt like they could cry. Nonbinary. It felt so right, it felt like what they felt. Annabeth was so amazing. “Can I use they/them pronouns?”

“Yes, of course, if that’s what you want.. Would you like to use another name?” Annabeth asked him but Leo shook their head. 

“No, I’m fine with Leo.”

“Alright, Leo. Now what you mentioned about your romantic and sexual orientation. There’s a difference between romantic and sexual orientation, for example somebody could be romantically attracted to women but sexually attracted to men and women. Somebody could be romantically attracted to men, like you, and not have any sexual attraction. There is the ace spectrum, which is sexualites that feel no sexual attraction or something like that. You could be sex repulsed, or just feel no sexual attraction, it’s a huge spectrum and there are so much ace sexualities. Asexual, graysexual, demisexual, things like that. Asexuality is basically the lack of sexual attraction. You can still feel romantic attraction, but not sexual attraction, or feel neither, or just sexual attraction and not romantic attraction.”

Annabeth deserved an oscar. “I think I’m that. Asexual, but romantically attracted to men. And nonbinary, too.” Leo was going to combust of happiness.

Annabeth smiled at him. “I’m proud of you, Leo.”

Leo pulled her into a hug, burying their face in the crook of her neck. “Thanks so much, Annabeth.” They were getting a bit teary eyed, but they were not going to admit that.

They stayed in that hug for a little while, before finally pulling away and immediately beginning to discuss some of their favourite buildings and architectures, beginning a little debate on which ones were better. 

A small weight felt like it had been lifted from Leo’s shoulders. At least now they could be worrying about the fact that they were all possibly going to die, and not that they weren’t normal. Maybe they weren’t completely normal, but that was okay, because nothing was ever truly normal anyways.

fin

**Author's Note:**

> guys ily thanks for reading


End file.
